NEW SERIES: "Super Robot Chogokin"

>But besides that, what I *really* would have loved woulda been hinged >wing/covers...just like on the original chogokin. Just for the sake of a simple, >perfect-transforming toy...even if the looks are a bit sacrificed. Hell, they could >make them removable for people who prefer looks...

They want anime accuracy. Remember that.

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I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

You mean the GD-03 God Reideen? I bitched about it somewhere on the boards before, though I'm too lazy to find my original review. In short, it was shit - an identity crisis between Old School Chogokin and Action Figure to the detriment of both. Had it been tweaked a little bit in either direction it would have been more awesomer. Alas, God Reideen, you were so middle-of-the-road you sucked.

The new incarnation, ironically, looks a lot like the old incarnation. Not a whole lotta difference on the surface, but surely it has more solid engineering...

Finally received my God Reideen. Regular chrome color, off of YJ, for $50 before the slow death by fees. If anyone cares, I may post pics towards the end of the month. But if I don't hear anything about pics, I'm not gonna bother.

Anyway, what's the scoop with GR? As Josh mentioned, it's really a predecessor to the SOC line. GR is taller than most SOCs. For example, about 1/2" taller than SOC Dragun at the shoulders and nearly three times as wide because of the wacky shoulder armor. The torso and lower-inner-bird legs are diecast, but that's it. It is nearly as poseable as most SOCs, minus a neck, waist joint, and ankles. Most of the joints are floppy, and there is combustable kibble everywhere. Whenever I touch it, at least two or three things fall off (belly laser, ass-plate, neck plate, etc.). It has super chrome plastic (or matte black if you go for the alternate paint job), translucent yellow plastic, and a crap load of stickers. So, don't expect much detail in the paint. However, the texture of the plastic varies to a nice effect. Somewhat odd, but it grows on you. Truthfully, the chrome makes the bling-bling factor a little too high for me. The basic character design is a good tribute to the original Reideen, but the colors are less so. I suspect it would look much better in a red, blue, gold, and black paint scheme.

What about weapons? Yeah, you get an expanding bow with an entending arrow, as well as an expanding shield with an extending blade. Both are ho-hum, have poor connection points, and are prone to just falling off of the forearms. BTW - both weapons attach to the back of the forearms (ala Nu Gundam) as opposed to the sides of the forearms (ala something other than Nu Gundam). The big-assed yellow wings on the back can open up in robot mode, but they're floppy, too.

And the god-bird? This is where the toy "shines" (pun intended). You move a lever on the back to auto-transform the head. Fold down the shoulder pads, lock the forearms into them, lock the lower legs together, pull open the yellow wings, and pull down the bird legs from inside the shins. Yowza! It's big, sleek, and funky. The toes on the bird legs move and the remind me of some Megazord from way back when (the white Ranger's eagle thing?). The legs can also rotate out to some degree, in case you want to duplicate a Spread Eagle album cover. It's middle of the road in terms of stability. A little floppy, but mostly solid.

The verdict: It's a good figure for being nearly ten years old. But you should pay maybe $50, max (before fees, of course). NEVER EVER EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU BUY THIS ON EBAY. It's too damn expensive there and I guarentee you'll feel ripped off if you pay the $100-200 most sellers are asking. Should you buy one? Only if you really like the character and are willing to settle for a toy with some poor-to-average QC. You probably won't see this ever reissued, or under the SOC banner (it wasn't "that popular" was it?), so factor that in to your decision.

So the ass plate falls off on yours too? I couldn't believe what a disappointment this figure was. I remember seeing at Kicks Hobby Japan when they first opened and asked, 'Why is it so expensive? ($150)' I still ponder this question.

My biggest complaint was the lack of articulation in the arms. His arms can cluck like a chicken. But since the shoulder plates are fixed forward and only swivel down sideways, the arms can't swing forward. Reideen can't turn his head either, so making an arrow & bow pose is near impossible. In fact, other than standing and showing off articulated fists, there aren't a lot of action poses...other than God Voice (third pic above).

The coolest feature is the head transformation mechanism. If you push the bluish headpiece armor together and pull the beak up, the face will disappear. Actually, I'm a little disappointed the new Chogokin figure doesn't have a transforming head bit, but it still looks far superior to this God Reideen.

I understand that there was a GD-03 limited release with traditional Brave Raideen colors. Someone here claims to own one...

I have fond feelings for that toy. Seeing "Chogokin Raideen" listed on sales sheets in the months leading up to the release was a minor miracle at the time. I bought it as soon as it hit KMH regardless of how it looked. One man, one vote.

Gcrush Wrote:
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> leMel42 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I understand that there was a GD-03 limited
> > release with traditional Brave Raideen colors.
> > Someone here claims to own one...
>
> Ah, you would be referring to this thread.
> Whatever happened to that fine fellow?
>
> Anyway, a repaint of the SRC GR in Reideen's
> colors would be the shiznatty. Love it.

By the way - I *did* snag the original picture, but can't for the life of me find it (prolly on my mothballed mac external drive). Know this: it was small, grainy, and proved nothing even at the time it was posted.

Still waiting for that and the fully diecast-hulled Big Scale Yamato proof.

Sorry for the haterade, believe me I know I'm not the deep gokin scholar, just loving on those legends and wanting them to be true.

DarkXerox Wrote:
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> Giantbluerobot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What parts of the Mazingers are diecast? Are
> > these the same size as the Hero Collection
> diecast
> > Mazingers?
>
> The upper torso, the leg joints at the hips, and
> the lower legs are the parts that are diecast.
> Their height is about five inches which is a inch
> shorter than the Hero Collection Mazingers.

Nice, more diecast figures to collect. Thanks DarkXerox. I hope this line last as as long as SOC's.

True--I don't buy much from BBTS (certainly not modern Japanese robot toys), but I figured their prices would be *close* to what it would cost to buy direct, after shipping and exchange rate.

And in fact, if you go with amiami (from whom I do buy fairly often because of their great discounts), it's 5080 + I'm guessing around 2k shipping because it'll likely be two medium-sized boxes for the figure and the add-on set. So that's already almost $90 right there.

I've always gone with either BBTS or HLJ whichever is giving a cheaper combined shipping plus item cost. I've bought off of other sites, of course, but 90% of the time there's so little difference in price as to make it hardly worth the bother.

In this case, $60 for the GGG seems barely OK. Another $24 for a non-transformable Goldymarg? Not so cool.

No doubt, Reverend. Sometimes I just ask BBTS to ship me an empty box, maybe throw in some packing peanuts, because I like paying for shipping.

Anyway, saw some of these SRCs in a store, and man are they tiny. Just don't seem worth the cost for what they are. Not at all.

I was always more into Gaofighgar anyway, and the least suckass rendition of that toy had to be the Yujin DX Final Fusion box set. A perfect sculpt, a foot tall, fully of clickety joints...if not for the damn parts-swapping, it'd be the best GGG toy ever.

My child, ever the player. Wasn't the Yujin DX, like, $500 or something when it came out??? And way back then, that was a LOT, even for a modern adult-collectible robot toy (SoCs were averaging no more than $100).

My vow of poverty (yeah, right!) has opened the path to full appreciation of the childish awesomeness of the Takara DX...which everyone should own.

But GaoFighGar will lead to damnation. Aiight, he's not THAT bad...but c'mon...the LEAST they coulda done was use the Galeon color palette on GaoFar. The Phantom Gao's color scheme clashes terribly with the rest of GFG.

Naw, man, it was about 14800 yen or so, straight from HLJ. You can still find it for about that or less. You thinking about the CMS versions?

I bought my older nephew the Takara DX some years back and he played the hell out of it. Now it belongs to his little brother. It's well execu...I mean, engineered and a rock-solid toy, but the proportions are a bit goofy.

Sanjeev Wrote:
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> gingaio Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Naw, man, it was about 14800 yen or so...
>
> The hell you say! Hmmm...maybe I'm thinking of
> that translucent green version...
>
I think you're thinking about the special gold edition that came with the hammer (?).

The green one was pretty common and sold for the same as the show-colors version. Also, because the regular and greenversions were available in the States through Diamond, the prices stayed pretty low. I mean, when you eat $500 burgers on the steps of Cohiba's brownstone like I do, 14800 yen is just lunch money, you know what I'm saying? Of course you do. Stay salty, son!

I also don't remember the Yujin version costing anywhere near $500. MAybe it was the CM's special version Gaogaiger that came it two brown boxes, it had the gaogaiger, gaofaiger hammer thing (goldysomething) and the pincers and the other white tiny robot that goes into gaogaiger. I wonder if that is the piece that is being referred to? I think it cost 49800 in the day..... IT was however a set package covering all the old toys in one delivery and nothing new.

cohiba Wrote:
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> YOu must be talking about the foie gras burgers at
> Daniel's, actually I think it was his more casual
> restaurant. Awesome burger, don't know if it is
> worth $150 (not $500), but very good nonetheless.

No offense, dude, but maybe you're not the pimp hero stud I held you up to be, if you've never heard of the $500 burger. I have a picture of it, but it may take some time to find it.

i am interested in the $500 burger. where do they serve it? don't need a picture, just the restaurant name.

there was that $1000 pizza that was sold for a while at aqua (i think) for awhile. it had beluga caviar, raw lobster and some other stuff. i can't remember. it wasn't worth the cost, definitely more of a hype thing.

id that the one at clavichord? I have to say, I haven't tried it yet. I haven't been back to NYC since 2009. I guess they started the burger in 2003 so my bad, but albino cows? really? how'd you like it?

The pizza i was talking about was at Bellissima, not Aqua. They just started it a couple of months before I got back so it was still a little hype, but not so much now.

cohiba Wrote:
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> i am interested in the $500 burger. where do they
> serve it? don't need a picture, just the
> restaurant name.
>
> there was that $1000 pizza that was sold for a
> while at aqua (i think) for awhile. it had
> beluga caviar, raw lobster and some other stuff.
> i can't remember. it wasn't worth the cost,
> definitely more of a hype thing.

There is a $5000 burger - the "fleuBurger 5000" at Hubert Keller's Fleur restaurant (there's one in the Mandalay Bay in Vegas). It's wagyu beef, foie gras, truffle with a bottle of 1995 Chateau Petrus.